Original Timmy Chan's

You might have actually been inside the City of Pasadena. The north end of UHCL is in Pasadena...south end is in Houston. Armand Bayou is the boundary between the two cities at the UHCL campus. I think some of Armand Bayou Nature Preserve is also in Pasadena. It drives many "Clear Lake" residents crazy to have to admit they live in Pasadena. One of my cousins who grew up in Deer Park is one of them. Can you imagine a former Deer Park Deer having to move to Pasadena?!? Scandalous...

"Iris Cory Carrington Delaney Bancroft Wheeler" Can you imagine having to fill that name in on a ScanTron form in elementary school?!? With the slow Southern drawl that I'm sure they used on the show, it probably took half an episode just to introduce Ms. Carrington Delaney Bancroft Wheeler!!!

RedScare hit it on the nose there... Kingwood's decline, real or perceived, is not related to whether their taxpayers' checks go to a MUD or to the COH. It was going to happen either way. Anyone know what the MUD taxes were before the annexation? COH taxes are $0.645. Suburban taxpayers like to complain about their property taxes increasing all the time...I assume their MUD taxes and services were not better than what they've got now through the COH (police, trash, fire, city water/wastewater).

Reading between the lines, this guy probably got what he was looking for...a few $$$ from Black Horse Ranch.

Either Leroy has been reading The Niche's posts, or Leroy IS The Niche! Seriously, though...nice writeup by Leroy. I'm glad we have someone like him getting our message out. The message still needs to be louder and clearer, though. UH and its alumni still suffer from some kind of inferiority complex. I know I worked every bit as hard to get my engineering degree as did anyone from UT-Austin or Texas A&M. I certainly don't feel inferior in any way to graduates of those schools.

Ummm...why don't we focus on what's important instead? Graphics, sets, and music! Channel Two's new graphics are SWEEEEEEEEEET... Honestly, I don't notice graphics, sets OR music. It's just not important AT ALL. New graphics and music wouldn't make Walter Cronkite any better, would they?

My understanding is they're transplanting mature oak trees from the new dorm site on Calhoun to the median of Calhoun. Very nice, in my opinion...those are nice oaks that would have normally been lost. It's much cheaper to just knock 'em down, but UH cares... And in response to Kyle, my understanding is that there will be ground-floor retail in the new dorm that's breaking ground on Calhoun. I believe the same goes for the new engineering building that will be started next year (sniff, goodbye Y building...) I think new parking garages will also be in the works under the master plan. They'll have to be, if UH is going to double the square footage of it's educational buildings in the next 10-20 years without expanding the campus, while also increasing green space. Existing surface parking lots will be turned into dorms, teaching facilities and parking garages.

OK, this is silly, but here goes: My #127 argument was a response to your #126 post: "Unless I see a complete list of funds given to different Texas schools, I think it's a little unfair to point that out and come to that conclusion." "That conclusion", meaning (from my interpretation of #125), that our state government FAVORS the UT and A&M System schools. You asked for a complete list of funds given to different Texas schools, which I didn't provide, but I did provide the BIG fund that separates UT and A&M System schools from the "orphans" of state higher education funding. My argument is not that Perry by himself is anti-UH, although his actions in 2001 were certainly questionable, but just that the PUF/AUF is patently biased. I think we're arguing different things. I jumped into an argument I shouldn't have, to protest the unfair funding of both A&M and UT schools to the detriment of UH and TT (and other state schools). The whole issue of UH losing state funds because of declining enrollment wouldn't be an issue at all if we were getting an extra $100-$250 million EVERY YEAR like UT and A&M. For that matter, look at UT-Austin's declining enrollment from 2002-2005: Fall 2002 enrollment: 52,261 (record) Fall 2003 enrollment: 51,426 Fall 2004 enrollment: 50,377 Fall 2005 enrollment: 49,696 Is UT-Austin in trouble?!? Maybe the Houston Chronicle should get right on that story...nah, they could just disparage UH instead.

If the locals aren't renting tubes because of high river levels, then you shouldn't be on the river! You'll either end up dead or risking lives in a dangerous rescue attempt. Trust the locals...they live on the river. They know how dangerous it can be. There've been two drownings in the last two weeks on the Guadalupe. Apparently the only way you can go down the river right now is with a guide...and even the guy that drowned this week was on a guided tour. http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/sto...ng.35da02e.html

Oops, I guess I misspoke earlier. I said that each system gets somewhere around $100 million per year from the PUF. Funds from the PUF are actually put into the AUF (Available Universities Fund), and then distributed to UT and A&M Systems. In any case, the $100 million per year was a little underestimated. http://www.utsystem.edu/CONT/Reports_Publi...AUF/2006AUF.pdf In FY 2007, the UT is budgeted to recieved over $281 MILLION from the AUF, and A&M will get over $136 MILLION. In FY 2006, the UT system recieved over $255 MILLION and A&M recieved almost $123 MILLION. Those are ACTUAL figures, not budgeted. Contrast that to UH and TT. Remember the "Excellence Funding" that both schools worked hard to get funded through the state legislature back in 2001? UH and TT lobbied for several years to get some additional "excellence funding" to try to catch up to UT and A&M. In the end, the state legislature did give UH all of about $13 million over 2 years, and TT about half of that, I believe. UH and TT were thrilled to get that paltry sum. Of course, Rick Perry immediately line-item vetoed that funding, claiming budget problems...so no excellence funding for UH or TT. Then he immediately turned around and found $50 million from a discretionary "economic development fund" and gave it to UT-Dallas. But I'm not bitter....nah...

Here's a start...the PUF. Most UT and A&M System schools share in this fund, which is given over and above the equal "per-student" allotment from the state that each school gets. The University of Houston and Texas Tech Systems are prohibited by law from recieving funds from the PUF. According to the article below, UT and A&M now get something less than 10% of their budgets from the PUF. Increase UH's and TT's budgets by 10% a year like UT and A&M get, and you'll see a reduction the tuition increases and an increase in the quality of the schools, both in bricks and mortar and in the academic output. I think UH and TT do a hell of a job without the tremendous subsidies that UT and A&M get. As I understand it, the PUF give each system something on the order of an extra $100 million per year that UH and TT don't get. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permanent_University_Fund The Permanent University Fund (PUF) is one of the methods the State of Texas funds its universities. In 1876, the Texas Constitution formed the PUF, into which proceeds from leases and royalties on state land would be deposited. The discovery of huge oil reserves in the early 1900's dramatically increased the size of the PUF. The PUF principal in fall 2005 was approximately $15 billion, second only to Harvard University's endowment. The PUF primarily serves The University of Texas System, which receives two thirds of its proceeds. The remaining third goes to the The Texas A&M University System. As of 2006, the University of Texas System received the fourth largest endowment in the nation, and the Texas A&M System received the tenth largest. Other Texas public universities outside these two systems, notably University of Houston and Texas Tech University, are prohibited by law from sharing the income from this endowment. At one time, the PUF was the chief source of income for Texas A&M University and The University of Texas at Austin, but today its revenues account for less than ten percent of the universities' annual budgets. This has challenged both schools to increase sponsored research and private donations. In 1984 voters amended the state constitution to expand the number of UT- and A&M-system schools benefiting from the proceeds of the PUF bonding program. The schools receiving help from the PUF thereafter included the University of Texas at Arlington, the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Texas at Dallas, the University of Texas at El Paso, the University of Texas of the Permian Basin, the University of Texas at San Antonio, the University of Texas at Tyler, the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, the University of Texas System Cancer Center, the University of Texas Health Center at Tyler, Texas A&M University, Prairie View A&M University, Tarleton State University, and Texas A&M University at Galveston.

The drawing does look nice...but I just don't see that happening. I'm curious if they'll be required to build on-site parking, since this is right next to an immense parking lot.

Are you sure it wasn't... ?????????? Maybe you saw his sweet perm and mistook for a light-skinned black man? And if there was a woman running around in the video, that makes sense too...she was probably trying to get away from the "smooth vibrations" of Kenny G!!!!

I noticed last night that a new development is breaking ground at UH on University Drive near Calhoun, across the street from the Campus Recreation and Wellness Center. They just started stripping the site sometime between Tuesday and Thursday of this week. Anyone know what's coming? This is the same site that's had a "coming soon" sign up for months (maybe a year or so?) It's the site with the Lovett Commercial Realty sign. HCAD shows it's owned by "Calhoun UH Ltd", but the mailing address is Lovett Commercial Realty's. It's about a 1/2-acre site (23,000 sf). There's also undeveloped land between the new Lovett site and the Catholic Student Center, but it's owned by the Houston-Galveston Diocese...obviously part of the Catholic Student Center property. I wonder if the Catholic Church would consider selling or developing that land? It's interesting to me that new retail is breaking ground by a private developer...not just UH. There is retail in the bottom of the new UH parking garage (right now just Sonic and McAlister's Deli), but it seems to me it's easier for UH to subsidize development if necessary. A private developer has to have the project stand on its own merits (it has to be profitable to develop). I think it's a good sign that a private developer is taking the initiative to develop this sign. Maybe we're finally reaching that "critical mass" necessary to attract more development on and around campus.

The San Jacinto Monument is in Deer Park (hence their "Birthplace of Texas" slogan). I haven't been in years, but it's a very special place to all Texans.

I drive through Marfa every time I take the Pinto Canyon Road down to Ruidosa! Personally, I prefer the southern ends of Presidio and Brewster Counties to the northern ends, but I like all of it. Marfa is getting just a little over the top, though.

Icee's were also what they sold at the KMart snack bars. Not that I ever got one, but I certainly remember looking longingly at that bear many, many, many times!

They did that back in the 90's...dredged a bunch of sand offshore and pumped it onto Galveston beaches. I think tens of millions of dollars were spent, and if I recall correctly, it was all washed away within a year by a couple of storms in the Gulf. Big, big waste of money to try and beat Mama Nature.

Sorry to offend you, Bob. No wait, if Bob Allen was a Coog, he'd actually cover UH athletics once in a while! (Just another reason why Mark Berman is #1 in my opinion...he covers LOCAL sports.)

I've had to drive up to Conroe a few times in the mornings from my house (610 at 288). I took 288 to 59 to 610 to the Hardy Toll Road, and made it to Conroe in about 35 minutes. Of course, that's not going the speed limit (47 miles in 35 minutes = 80 mph average speed). But the fact that I could drive 80 mph the entire way says something about the traffic on that route...very easy. The worst part was 288 up to downtown, which takes all of 5 minutes. I've never had to drive to Baytown at rush hour, but according to MapQuest it's a 26-mile drive. I would assume that doing a reverse commute, you can do well over 60 mph...therefore you could get from downtown to Baytown in less than 26 minutes (it would be 22 minutes at 70 mph). MapQuest estimates 30 minutes. The toughest part of the drive should be waiting through all the downtown stoplights to get to I-10. Another resource is http://houstontranstar.org/: Average speed on I-10 Eastbound inside the Loop is consistently above 65 mph...no slowdowns: http://traffic.houstontranstar.org/speedcharts/get_speedchart.aspx?Free=IH-10_East&Dir=Eastbound&Segment=206-207&Line=2006&Street=Lockwood to IH-610 East Loop://http://traffic.houstontranstar.org/...H-610 East Loop://http://traffic.houstontranstar.org/...H-610 East Loop://http://traffic.houstontranstar.org/...H-610 East Loop Using the same website, as you go farther east towards BW-8 and Baytown, the average speed throughout the day approaches 70 mph. For the Woodlands commute, the same site shows that average speeds on I-45 North exceed 70 mph on most stretches in the mornings (for example, 1960 to Louetta averages about 75 mph during the morning rush hour): http://traffic.houstontranstar.org/speedcharts/get_speedchart.aspx?Free=IH-45_North&Dir=Northbound&Segment=269-62&Line=2006&Street=FM-1960 to Louetta://http://traffic.houstontranstar.org/...1960 to Louetta://http://traffic.houstontranstar.org/...1960 to Louetta://http://traffic.houstontranstar.org/...1960 to Louetta

RedScare, I fear for your safety. You should heed the warnings of Vertigo and others here! Personally, my wife and I have vowed to NEVER go back to the Heights again, due to an incident that happened two weeks ago. My wife's truck was broken into a couple of weekends ago, right on Heights Blvd!!! Not only that, but when I lived in the Heights 12 years ago, my car got broken into there, and I also remember seeing graffiti AND Mexican teenagers (I know they were gangsters) walking in the streets back then. I doubt that the situation has improved in the last 12 years...I don't ever go to the Heights, but I bet it's an apocalyptic hell now, straight out of Mad Max (and not the "beyond Thunderdome" version, I'm talking the ORIGINAL, with the bad acting, cheap FX, and no Tina Turner to save it) Yeah, THAT BAD! Anyhow, please consider this a warning to STAY OUT OF THE HEIGHTS!!! RedScare, get out of your denial and GET OUT OF THE HEIGHTS!!!

Funny you mention it...a friend of ours was in town last weekend. I used to get dragged to the Davenport with her and my wife every once in a while. It wasn't my kind of place (I tend more to the icehouse crowd), but they liked the "atmosphere" there. Anyways, to make a long story short, while the friend was in town, she drove by Davenport to stop in for a drink. She promptly turned around when she saw the crowd lined up at the VELVET ROPE outside the door!!! Does that help answer your question?

If I start now, I could make my own life-size version of "Dogs Playing Poker" by the end of my own life! This is the coolest thing EVER!!!

Now if these were Bear CLAWS (from Shipley's) instead of bear PAWS, I'm certain there would have ZERO confusion amongst the law enforcement authorities...

It could also be considered just one of the drawbacks of having Aggies on campus.